Missiology
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 49, No. 2 – Spring 2007
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005. 159 pages. Softcover, $16.95.
A well-known scholar and prolific writer, Daniel J. Harrington is professor of New Testament at Weston Jesuit School of Theology. He is the general editor of New Testament Abstracts as well as the Sacra Pagina Bible commentary series. An ordained Catholic priest, he has preached almost every Sunday for the last thirty-five years (113).
This little volume is both interesting and enlightening. Harrington certainly accomplishes his purpose of giving simple, easy-to-understand explanations to the non-specialist reader (xiv). Each chapter ends with some helpful “Questions for Meditation and Reflection,” and the twenty- five theses at the end of the book summarize the book well (129–32). However, he gives a one-sided picture of such matters as higher criticism of the Bible. He presents a positive assessment of redaction or other higher criticisms with no mention of any of their negative excesses. He does criticize certain beliefs that he rejects, such as supersessionism (79), literalism, or fundamentalism (103), but he presents Feminist Theology, Liberation Theology (38–39), and a problematic dual covenant idea (“a twofold way of salvation,” 80) with no criticism at all. It is as if he is writing to children and avoiding any mention of theological problems in the adult world.
Presumably, non-Catholics will comprise the majority of the reader- ship of this volume. Thankfully, Harrington communicates well to a non- Roman Catholic audience. It is disappointing to note the trend among Catholic scholars away from a conservative interpretation of the Bible. The repeated description of “the word of God in human language” (35, 38) has too much emphasis on the human side of inspiration and the alleged errors that resulted. For example, an 1893 encyclical letter upheld biblical inerrancy (5), but a 1993 Pontiff Bible Commission harshly criticized an overly literal interpretation (11–12) as well as claiming biblical texts have dynamic (multiple) literal senses (104). Thus, Harrington rejects a literalist or fundamentalist approach to Bible interpretation (103). He calls Jonah and Esther “charming short stories” (26) like the apocryphal Tobit and Judith. One wonders what disparity there is between the Catholic clergy and laity in Bible interpretation, and it would have been helpful for Harrington to address this issue.
Apart from noting the obvious Protestant disagreement with Catholics over the Apocrypha (26–27), Harrington wrongly claims most Protestant Bible publishers add the Apocrypha in the appendix (26). Most Protestants will find his justification for the importance of adding tradition to Scripture weak (106–11). At any rate, although this book gives good insight to Roman Catholic interpretation, it likely describes how their clergy and theologians—rather than their laity—tend to interpret the Bible.
